Ram exec all but admits a flagship above the RHO is on the way

As part of the marketing campaign for the Ram RHO pickup, the automaker created a three-minute video called "The Convoy" that lined up a number of Ram products including Warlock and Rebel X trims. Because it would take someone in-the-know to identify all the Easter eggs and behind-the-scenes secrets, Jeff Summers, head of advertising at Ram Trucks, has done just that. In a LinkedIn post, he picks out 20 features of the three-minute clip, such as the custom Baja truck "with Ram DNA" belonging to Baja race winner Rhys Millen, and the two KTM motorcycles chosen to represent one of Ram's European partnerships. Regarding the latter, Summers is talking about Ram signing on for a third year of sponsorship of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, specifically in the the FIM Motocross World Championship. 

In the vid, one of the bikes wears the race number 540, signifying the output of the Ram RHO, a motif repeated on the clock inside the tent at the beginning. The other KTM doesn't have any number. Summers wrote in his post that this bike "has a number intentionally left blank for the next Ram High HP vehicle with three letters." Which is as close as we're ever going to get to an outright admission that Ram is cooking a truck that might be a proper successor to the TRX.

The LinkedIn post comes less than a week after Ram global operations officer Bob Broderdorf explained at the RHO launch that the brand isn't positioning the RHO as a TRX successor, while also making clear that Ram has the experience and expertise in-house to build extreme vehicles like the TRX if it wants to, and while refusing to confirm or deny a TRX successor with the required horsepower is in the works. There's no reason SRT can't go mad scientist on the Hurricane the same way it once did with the Hemi V8; there's surely another 170 horses in there with the proper revisions. Or, with Broderhof having given his blessing to the potential of electrified performance trucks — but not before Ram gets its bread-and-butter electrified trucks out — there's another avenue to output that beats the TRX's 702 hp. 

As we wrote about the subject after the RHO launch, "Normally, we'd say, 'Don't get your hopes up.' But this time, we think the odds are good this is in the works."